Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

The devil’s in the details as GSA seeks to consolidate the Multiple Award Schedules

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The General Services Administration (GSA) will use the coming year to determine what its recently announced consolidated schedule will look like, according to the official leading the effort.

GSA announced in November the consolidation of 24 multiple award schedules into a single contract vehicle that federal agencies can use to purchase a range of more than 10 million products and services. Each year, agencies purchase about $30 billion worth of products — ranging from office supplies to various IT services — through GSA’s 24 schedules.

“Over this year, we’ll start the consolidation of the MAS program,” said Stephanie Shutt, director of the MAS Program Management Office, speaking at a recent GSA industry day.

Shutt said an integrated project team consisting of MAS members and officials from various acquisition centers and portfolios is doing much of the early work. This team will help make crucial decisions that could shape the single schedule.

For example, Shutt said they are reviewing all existing terms and conditions and determining where overlap exists among special item numbers, which generally categorize the kinds of good and services available. One goal, she said, would be to get rid of redundant or duplicitous conditions.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/12/devils-details-gsa-seeks-consolidate-multiple-award-schedules/153638/

Industry applauds acquisition consolidation, warns of work to be done

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Members of the private sector and industry-representing groups applauded the General Services Administration’s decision to consolidate the 24 multiple award schedules into a single acquisition vehicle, but cautioned that the agency would have to do much more than just consolidation to affect real change.

“Assuming all else stays the same, combining all of the [special item numbers] under one umbrella doesn’t necessarily alleviate the burden to negotiations and buyers,” said Julia Conti, contracts director at CGI Federal, at a Dec. 12 GSA industry day. “Making it easier is not necessarily keeping it on autopilot.”

According to Conti and other members of a panel at the event, the GSA is going to have to rework contracting language, examine a broader array of contracting vehicles and make efforts to reach out to both agencies and the workforce for the MAS consolidation to be truly effective.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2018/12/12/industry-applauds-acquisition-consolidation-warns-of-work-to-be-done/

Are you a GSA Schedule contractor? Expect changes next year in how you report sales and pay your IFF

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The General Services Administration (GSA) has announced that Federal Supply Schedule contractors will be required to use a new system beginning in 2019 to report their sales and remit their Industrial Funding Fee (IFF).

The present 72A Reporting System will be replaced with a Sales Reporting Portal (SRP).  The goal of the transition to the SRP is to provide a single reporting system for all contractors to use for reporting sales and remitting IFF.

GSA’s overall IT modernization efforts include improving its IT enterprise by building and maintaining a more modern and secure architecture for its IT systems.

The transition to the SRP system not only supports GSA’s modernization effort, but it streamlines the overall process of reporting sales and remitting the IFF, making it more efficient for GSA and its industry partners alike.

The Federal Acquisition Service’s Sales Reporting Portal currently houses all the Transactional Data Repository (TDR) contracts as well as all new quarterly reporting MAS contractors as of July 2018. GSA wants to complete the transition by moving more than 14,000 current contracts into the FAS SRP to allow for the sun-setting of the existing 72A reporting system.

GSA has developed and implemented a three-phase implementation approach that will be carried out over the next 12 months. This phased-in approach will let contractors start reporting in the new system while GSA transitions their historical data over from the legacy 72A system.

  • In Phase One, companies will be notified via email that their Schedule contract(s) have been assigned a FAS Sales Reporting Portal transition date. This date will be the first day of a reporting quarter.  No action will be needed until the end of that reporting period, when the contractor will begin reporting sales and remitting their IFF in the new FAS SRP.

Example: A contract is assigned the Jan. 1, 2019 transition date which is the first day of a reporting quarter.  No action will be necessary until the contractor has to report sales for that quarter in April 2019. That will be the first time the contractor would be required to log into the FAS SRP and report sales there.

  • In Phase Two, contractors complete their final reporting of sales and remittal of IFF in the legacy 72A System for the current quarter.

Example: FAS SRP Report Date: January 2019 – The contractor will report sales and remit their IFF in the legacy 72A system one final time for the period covering October 2018 thru December 2018.  This reporting will be due by January 30, 2019.  The company will report sales for the quarter January 2019 through March 2019 in the new FAS SRP during April 2019.

  • In Phase Three, all contract history will transfer over from the legacy 72A System into the new FAS SRP. This process will not happen until the last sales have been reported and the IFF is paid in the 72A System. Once complete, GSA will migrate the contract sales history over into the FAS SRP . If the contract has an overall variance (i.e., an imbalance between IFF owed and IFF paid) at that time, the contractor will be notified via email prior to migrating their history into the FAS SRP.

Contractors may direct questions related to this transition via email to: MASPMO@gsa.gov.

GSA wants streamlined forms for Schedule offers

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It is taking too long for the General Services Administration to process new offers from companies looking to get on a Multiple Award Schedules, according to officials, but a new policy seeks to streamline and standardize that work.

The MAS program will be releasing a draft of the new policy in “two-and-a-half to three months,” said Tiffany Hixson, GSA assistant commissioner for the Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories, during ACT-IAC’s Feb. 22 Federal Insights Exchange.

“Implementing offer streamlining is a really big deal for us,” Hixson said. “We were probably pushing a year in some instances in terms of getting offers processed. Granted, some of that was just related to the sheer volume of offers. … That said, there were some real challenges that we were having in terms of processing offers.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/02/gsa-wants-streamlined-offer-forms/146179/

GSA is expected to post its draft policy on this subject on the GSA Interact website.

Major contractor pays $1.7 million to settle overcharges on GSA Schedule

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Accenture Federal Services LLC (Accenture), located in Reston, has agreed to pay $1,744,559 to settle overcharges billed to a General Services Administration multiple award schedule contract.

The resolution follows from a disclosure by the company to the U.S. Army Contracting Command, which arose out of an internal investigation conducted by Accenture. Accenture reported to the government that overcharges had been caused by unauthorized purchases of copy toner that had been surreptitiously made by a subcontractor on the contract. The disclosure by Accenture to the Army was made pursuant to the Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). Accenture provided assistance during the government’s investigation.

The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The civil claims settled are allegations only; there has been no determination of civil liability.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/accenture-pays-17-million-settle-overcharged-government-contract

GSA reopens Schedule 75, and introduces ‘enhanced’ office supplies SIN

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The General Services Administration (GSA) has reopened the new and improved Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 75 to new offerors and also added what GSA is calling “a new enhanced” special item number (SIN).  The new SIN is known as Office Supplies Fourth Generation (OS4) for Office Products and Services to the Schedule.

“The new MAS 75 and enhanced SIN were designed to leverage the advantages of utilizing the increased competition from OS2 and ensuring the transparency set forth in OS3, to help GSA accomplish its goals and create value,” says GSA Administrator Emily Murphy. “Increased competition and transparency will help customers and GSA’s industry partners by improving task order-level competition for the federal acquisition community and removing barriers to entry to industry. Ultimately, this means better value and more favorable terms and conditions for customers and more opportunities for small businesses in the government marketplace.”

Run by GSA’s Northeast Caribbean Region, the new office supplies acquisition solution incorporates the Best-In-Class (BIC) features of the OS3 solutions to increase market share, reduce program redundancies, improve customer satisfaction, and increase federal acquisition opportunities for small businesses. Additionally, the combined legacy and enhanced SINs offer customers significant savings, while also meeting sustainable acquisition and socioeconomic goals.

The reopening of MAS 75 and establishment of the enhanced SIN OS4 will also help GSA meet GSA’s goals of refreshing and expanding a competitive pool of qualified vendors, improving customer value on MAS 75 by offering more favorable terms and conditions, savings, and increasing OCONUS (overseas) utilization.

For more information about the reopening of MAS 75 and the new enhanced SIN, visit www.gsa.gov/schedule75.

Business owner sentenced to 20 months in prison for fraudulent billing scheme against federal government

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Nikita Davis, 48, a business owner with a firm in Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for a scheme in which she improperly qualified for government contracts and then fraudulently billed the United States more than $1.1 million.

Davis pled guilty in June 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to major fraud against the United States.  She was sentenced on October 20, 2017.  The plea agreement calls for her to pay $1,189,697 in restitution to the United States. Upon completion of her prison term, Davis will be placed on three years of supervised release.

Davis was the president and chief executive officer of Federal Acquisition Consultants Inc. (FACI), a company based in Washington, D.C., that specialized in acquisition and program management support. The company was formed in 2007 as an economically disadvantaged, woman-owned, small business.

According to a statement of offense submitted at the plea hearing, Davis made fraudulent representations when she applied in March 2013 for a contract under a GSA program created to streamline the federal procurement process through pre-negotiated prices and terms. GSA provided centralized procurement for the federal government through this program, known as the GSA Multiple Awards Schedule Program (GSA MAS or simply “GSA Schedule”).

The GSA awarded Davis’s company a Schedule contract in May 2013.  Later in 2013, the Department of Commerce solicited requests for quotes from Schedule contractors for work related to the mission of the Afghanistan Investment and Reconstruction Task Force.  The Task Force, part of the Commerce Department, aimed to facilitate and coordinate activities designed to help Afghanistan develop a sustainable economy, stabilize the market, and create strong Afghan-American partnerships.

Davis’s company submitted quotes and in September of 2013 was awarded seven contracts, worth a total of more than $3.1 million.  In April 2014, the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General initiated an investigation into Davis and the company, based on an allegation that she submitted false invoices and made false statements to government agencies.  The investigation revealed that, in obtaining the GSA Schedule contract designation, Davis made false representations about her company’s past work experience.  It also determined that Davis’s company improperly billed and collected from the government a total of $1,189,697 under the contracts by billing improperly for travel, danger pay, insurance, security and labor.

Those investigating this case included representatives of the Offices of the Inspector General for the General Services Administration and Department of Commerce.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/business-owner-sentenced-20-months-prison-fraudulent-billing-scheme-against-federal

GSA seeks industry feedback on Civilian Contract Audit Services Ordering Guide

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The federal government’s Civilian Contract Audit Services Working Group, made up of representatives from more than 13 federal agencies and co-led by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration, is seeking industry feedback on a Civilian Contract Audit Services Ordering Guide. The Ordering Guide is the result of a cross-agency collaboration to explore options to help agencies efficiently and effectively meet their contract audit requirements.

The Ordering Guide sets forth best practices for issuing task orders against the GSA Multiple Award Schedules for professional services to fill agencies’ contract audit requirements and  includes guidance on:

  • Contract direct costs,
  • Incurred Cost Proposal for Final Overhead and/or Billing Rates,
  • Accounting System Reviews,
  • Cost Accounting Standards,
  • Forward Pricing Rate Agreements,
  • Invoice/voucher review, and
  • Others, as necessary

The guide supports the Professional Services Category initiative identified as a critical component to meeting current and future contract audit requirements, and ultimately reducing the opportunity for contract duplication.

It is important to note that the DCAA heretofore has been, and in many cases continues to be, the primary source for the conduct of contract audits for cost reimbursable contracts. However, there are circumstances (i.e., work stoppages, capacity, cognizance, etc.) that may require agencies to procure these services from commercial sources. GSA’s Professional Services Schedule addresses that need.

The draft Ordering Guide is available on FedBizOpps (FBO) under Request for Information (RFI) number 1246131. Please provide comments as instructed on FBO.  Responses in Portable Document Format (PDF) compatible format are due no later than ​5:00 PM PST, October 27, 2017.  Responses must be submitted via e-mail to ccas@gsa.gov. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

The information provided will be utilized for preliminary planning purposes by the Government to facilitate the decision making process and will not be disclosed outside of the Government. All data received that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be fully protected from release outside the Government.

For more information contact: ccas@gsa.gov

GSA looks to help startups navigate big contracts

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The General Services Administration has posted a guide to help new technology startups navigate the agency’s sprawling multiple awards schedule contracts.

The Multiple Award Schedule Roadmap, said the GSA’s MAS Program Management Office, is part of the agency’s response to feedback from emerging, small and start-up businesses that getting onto MAS contracts such as IT Schedule 70 can be complicated and time-consuming.

The effort, according to a Sept. 21 blog post, was rolled out under the agency’s “Making It Easier” initiative.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2017/09/26/gsa-startup-guide-rockwell.aspx

GSA seeking ‘blockchain’ solutions

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Blockchain technology is coming to the federal government.

The General Services Administration is accepting quotes from IT and other tech companies regarding how blockchain and automated machine learning technologies could be used to improve the agency’s Multiple Award Schedules FASt Lane program.

The FASt Lane program is part of a broader GSA initiative that speeds up the time companies add products to the Schedule series, but GSA’s request for quotations suggests automated machine learning could reduce the amount of time humans spend reviewing documents and proposals.

Keep reading this article at: http://m.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2017/06/gsa-seeks-blockchain-solutions/138941

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